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Police following leads in Newport bank robbery

Newport Police, Penobscot County Sheriff's Dept. and State Police responded to a bank robbery at TD Bank's office on 77 Main Street in Newport Wednesday morning, March 31, 2010. BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS

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Maine State Police investigators check for evidence in the main entrance to TD Bank on 77 Main Street in Newport Wednesday morning, March 31, 2010.Newport Police, Penobscot County Sheriff's Dept. and State Police responded to a bank robbery shortly after 9 a.m. at the branch. According to Maine State Police, the robber is described as a young man wearing a sailors hat who made off with a money bag after presenting a teller with a note indicating he had a gun. BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS

NEWPORT, Maine — A young man walked into the Main Street TD Bank just after it opened Wednesday morning and used a note to threaten the teller, who gave him an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police Chief Leonard Macdaid said Wednesday evening that no arrests had been made but that his officers, with the help of state police and the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department, were following up on “quite a few leads.”

The bank robber, described as a 5-foot 6-inch white male in his late teens, early 20s with brown hair, was wearing a white hat shaped like the top of a mushroom and a gray and black coat with horizontal zippers when he entered the bank.

“The sailor’s hat he was wearing, similar to Gilligan from the old TV show, was later found behind the bank,” according to a statement from Stephen McCausland, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman.

The robber handed the teller a note saying he had a gun and wanted cash. The teller did not see a weapon and no injuries were reported.

The suspect was given a moneybag with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The call for help came in at 9:10 a.m. An all points bulletin was issued shortly afterward.

“Our search has expanded over quite a few towns at this point,” Macdaid said Wednesday evening, adding that most of the Newport Police Department has been called in to help with the case. One thing investigators are uncertain of is whether the suspect left the bank in a car or on foot. Reports of a medium-size red car involved in the heist came from witnesses who saw the suspect exit the car before the robbery.

The robber was said to be wearing a black coat with a horizontal zipper on the breast with gray on the shoulders and sleeves and tan pants and a T-shirt.

Macdaid said his officers have received numerous tips and that he hoped the tips would keep coming. Anyone with information about the robbery should call Newport police at 368-3263 or Maine State Police at 866-2122.

“At this point we don’t believe there’s any danger to the public at all,” Macdaid said. “I want to commend the tellers in the bank, who reacted perfectly. That’s a credit to why no one got hurt.”